Joanna Williams

Knight. Through. Rewarded. Adventure. Explosion. Ok, so I know Spectator readers are of above-average intelligence, and so hardly a representative sample, but I’m going to stick my neck on the line and suggest that most literate adults are not only capable of reading these words, but they can spell them too. Yet Lucy Powell, our newly crowned Education Secretary, seems to think they are ‘obscure’. Pity England’s children, and pity England. We have Philistines in charge of our education system In fact, so ‘obscure’ are these words, according to the woman now tasked with securing school standards, that it is unfair to expect 11-year-olds to know how to spell them.

Andy Burnham may have booted the Starmerites out of the cabinet, but at the Department for Education, it’s a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell has replaced Bridget Phillipson as Education Secretary. The pair share the same haircut, same generic northern accent, and same ideological commitments. So the question is, will anyone notice the swap? Under Bridget Phillipson, the line between education and indoctrination grew thinner than ever before As Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson seemed far more interested in waging class warfare than in what was actually going on inside England’s classrooms.

What is the point of an overnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds? The government’s plan to compel tech companies such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to switch off between midnight and 6am comes with one important proviso: a couple of clicks in account settings, and older teenagers will be able to override the digital bedtime. Simple! So why bother?  Clearly, social media is an easy political target right now. Amid a hysterical, anecdote-rich but evidence-light debate, smartphones and algorithms are blamed for everything from teen mental health problems to childhood obesity, from falling birth rates to the decline in reading. For beleaguered government ministers and a soon-to-be-ex-Prime Minister in search of a legacy, bashing tech companies is an easy win.

There’s one member of the royal family that most women of a certain age would truly like to hang out with, and that’s the Queen. Camilla gives every impression of enjoying a stiff gin, a risque joke and a crafty fag. Better still, she seems sufficiently down-to-earth to have little time for wokery. She’d give short shrift to men in dresses who think they have a right to be in female-only spaces. So of course Her Majesty met with the champion of women’s sex-based rights, JK Rowling, in Edinburgh this week. The only question is: why hasn’t this royal blessing happened sooner? To our national shame, rather than being celebrated, Rowling is all too often overlooked or shunned By any metric, Rowling should be a national treasure.

Booting children off YouTube so they can spend more time watching the BBC sounds wonderfully wholesome to a generation of adults with fond memories of Play School, Jackanory and Blue Peter. But in 2026, children’s television is not so innocent. Can’t children’s television programmes just be entertaining and informative? Like literature, education, clubs such as the Scouts and Guides, libraries, art galleries, museums, and just about anything else children might encounter, television is now political. So it is hardly a surprise to learn that CBBC producers have been lobbied by charities and campaigning organisations that are keen to get their message across in output aimed at primary school-aged children.

Brace yourself! Celebrities are on the march. As Keir Starmer’s premiership fades into irrelevance and Reform gears up to fight a general election, stars of stage and screen are ready and waiting to let the public know whose side they are on. But fear not. While their anti-Farage venom may be all too predictable, there’s still fun to be had in watching the virtue-signallers tie themselves in knots. This is positively erudite compared to Hugh Grant, who simply told Nigel Farage to ‘go f*** yourself’ Posh chef-turned-eco-warrior Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was at it in the Times yesterday. ‘There’s so much I don’t like about Reform. I hate its take on immigration,’ he moans.

Once, a battle for the future of the Labour party meant serious politicians debating ideological differences through lengthy speeches. In 2026, it means 60-second video clips shared on social media. This week, we’ve had a double delight. First up was Andy Burnham’s wistful walk through the Makerfield constituency he hopes to make his own. So far, so clichéd. More interesting – and more disturbing – was Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s foray into film. For reasons unexplained, Phillipson has been filmed in the offices of the Department for Education For reasons unexplained, Phillipson has been filmed in the offices of the Department for Education in conversation with ‘media personality’ Gemma Collins.

Moan all you like about Gen Z, but some of today’s youngsters put adults to shame. Take the pupils at Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, east London. Tired of their teachers going out on strike yet again, this time during exam season, children and parents have begun mounting their own counter-demonstrations. After years of disruption to their education, they are urging the grown-ups to ‘teach or quit’. Teachers who don a Palestinian scarf and turn their backs on their pupils reveal that education is the least of their concerns A clip of Friday’s protest has been widely shared on social media. Angry pupils confront teachers who have chosen to spend the day on the picket line, rather than in the classroom.

For the past few years, woke has been on life support. Back in 2020, police officers knelt for Black Lives Matter, children were taught that boys could become girls, and the trans-inclusive Pride flag seemed to fly from every building in the country. Since then, there has been something of a retreat. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) industry still has a pulse and is more than capable of reinvention, but it is less confident and more defensive. Human Resource officers were able to rule the roost Why the change? Donald Trump’s second term in office is one reason for the vibe shift. The US President punctured all manner of sacred convictions as he signed executive orders to keep DEI out of education and men out of women’s sports.

Does being a parent make people happy? Not according to a recent BBC investigation into ‘the women who regret being mothers.’ It features one woman who describes motherhood as ‘like a trap you can’t escape.’ An overwhelming love sits atop happiness, tears, and tantrums alike A slew of other publications have ploughed the same furrow. ‘I’m fed up of being a slave’, led the Daily Telegraph. ‘I love my kids but I regret having them. How can I accept my life as a parent?’ asked the Guardian. ‘I regret becoming a father – the children are ruining our marriage,’ laments a dad across at the i Paper, ‘I wish I could go back in time.’ So much misery. So much regret. And now it’s backed by research.

Say what you like about transgender activists, but they are certainly persistent. Legal judgements, institutional rule changes and moral pressure count for nothing; such is their determination to get men into women’s spaces. Girlguiding HQ had, with arms twisted, accepted the Supreme Court ruling. But there was a problem Take the Girl Guides. For anyone with a scrap of common sense, or even a vague familiarity with the English language, the clue is in the name. This is an organisation for girls. Female children, to be precise. Or at least, it always used to be. Tragically, back in 2018, a year historians might well come to regard as kicking off the ‘peak woke’ era, Girlguiding UK introduced a ‘trans-inclusive diversity policy’.

Remember the Coldplay kisscam couple? Loved-up Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot were caught embracing at a Boston concert, only to pull away and duck for cover once they realised, with horror, that they had been spotted. The drama, intrigue and cringe-factor surrounding the pair, who were both married to other people at the time, ensured the 16-second clip became last summer’s viral hit. Concern about the invasion of their privacy was tempered by the fact that, well, they were at a Coldplay concert. Cabot claims she still cannot find a job, while suggesting that Byron has received ‘lots of interest’ from employers Being thrust into the limelight, particularly for being caught in flagrante, can’t have been pleasant.

Does Bridget Phillipson think that every child has learning difficulties? The government’s long-overdue overhaul of provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has now been unveiled, revealing a deeply troubling vision of schools. Today’s big announcement about SEND reform reveals Labour’s impoverished vision for schools Announced this morning is an additional £4 billion of funding, spread over three years, to support SEND pupils in mainstream schools. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, was quick off the blocks in condemning this amount as ‘barely a drop in the bucket of the investment necessary to drive real improvement in schools.

It’s been a while, but student censors are on the march once more. This time, they have Reform UK firmly in their sights. With eight MPs in Parliament and a huge lead in opinion polls, Reform has rapidly become a key part of Britain’s political landscape. But denial is the current vibe on campus, and students seem determined to make universities Reform-free zones. Students need to get with the times. This anti-free speech on campus stuff is all so 2022 Bangor University is the latest to hit the headlines after a Reform MP was banned from addressing students. Sarah Pochin, MP for Runcorn and Helsby, offered to conduct a question-and-answer session, but her request was dismissed.

Agreeing with David Cameron was not on my bingo card, but politics in 2026 is a funny old game, and so here we are. The former prime minister has blasted the Labour government for taking ‘a spite-laden wrecking ball’ to school reforms that raised standards, improved education, and benefited children from the least well-off backgrounds. And he is right. Labour’s infantile crusade against elitism extended to cutting the state-school Latin Excellence Programme Since their very first days in office, Keir Starmer and his Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have seemed intent on destroying Britain’s finest schools.